Your Son
by Allebasii
Summary: "I'm your son!" Maddie could only stare in shock at the white haired teen strapped to the table-could he possibly be Daniel? Her little boy? Maddie opened her mouth to choke out the question, tears gathering behind her goggles, when the ghost continued speaking, oblivious. "Your's and Jack Fenton's" Maddie glared down at the ghost, enraged. How could she have beliveved his lies?AU


**Contains trigger warnings and character death, as seen on the cover (although however temporarily...), so read at your own risk!  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**"Your Son"**  
**By Allebasii**

Madeline Masters hummed absently as she worked.

The soothing lullaby she unconsciously wove echoed pleasantly, if slightly eerily, around the large rectangular room, bouncing off of the bare walls back towards where she worked at the long metal lab table where the Proto-portal Mark 2 rested, it's soft pink sides seeming to glow slightly from within, highlighting her black work gloves her teal suit in an odd, harsh red light that was in stark contrast to her soft amber hair.

Daniel Masters cooed up at his mother from beneath untidy black hair, where he lay in the small crib she had set up; Vlad, Maddie's husband, and young Daniel's father, was away at work, busy putting in order all of the businesses, properties, and family heirlooms his great uncle, William k. Masters, (better known as 'the Dairy King,') had left to him after his passing—including the castle they now called home.

With a soft laugh at her son's vocalizations, Maddie took up a small electronic sensor and stuck it into the portal's opening, measuring the amount of ectoplasmic energy that was radiating from the small vial of concentrated ectoplasm that was held in a special clasp at the bottom of the small octagon-shaped portal, waiting with bated breath. Pulling it out, she waved it in the air a bit, to cool it down a bit.

And then she saw the results.

Grinning in anticipation, she grabbed another small tool and tightened a small, bright green bolt, and with a small spark, then a burst of white light, the interior of the portal let out a loud ripping sound—a combination of metal being torn in half, fingernails on a chalkboard, and wind in a hurricane—a portal to the world of the dead opened before the astonished scientist.

There was a moment of shocked silence, while Maddie just stared at her creation, a smile lighting up the young mother's face.

And then everything went _wrong._

The room, formerly a cozy warm, immediately dropped at least twenty degrees, and the next breath Maddie exhaled bloomed in front of her eyes in a cloud of steam.

With a gasp, Maddie grabbed Daniel, who had gone silent, from his crib and backed away from the portal, which was glowing brighter and brighter, a dark swirling mass beginning to show in its infinite depths.

And then she saw the eyes.

Bright red, glowing crimson, they stared with primal hate out of the tear in reality, and with an unearthly shriek, the creature they belonged to ripped its way through the tiny opening, it's form turning into a strange, see through mist as it slithered out onto the floor, before it's shape solidified into a blowing green body, mostly shapeless, but for the barest of impressions of limbs, two arms, that ended in sharp, glowing claws; the red eyes stared out from a roundish-face, with a mane of what could have been either hair or frozen flames sprouting from the back of its 'head'.

"Vi, homo, vi estas ĉasisto, jes?" The alien being questioned in a low, echoing, guttural tongue, its maw opening to reveal a mass of green fangs and a gaping abyss as it spoke.

Maddie stared at the creature in terror as the voice washed over her, leaving her skin chilled and goosebumps shooting up her arms, as if trying to outrun her frantically beating heart as it pounded in her chest.

"Wh-what do you want, ghost?" She questioned, berating herself for not having any of the weapons she had invented within reach.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid! I should have seen that this could happen! What do I do now!?' She thought frantically.

The ghost narrowed its crimson eyes and tilted its head to the side, staring at her in contempt, and the first stirrings of anger.

"Malsaĝa kreito, eĉ ne kapablas paroli la Lingvo; vi estas malinda de enirante el mondo, tamen vi bonvolis invadi mia hejmo!?" It shrieked, eyes flashing dangerously, and Maddie jerked away as Daniel began to wail fearfully in her arms.

Immediately, the ghost's eyes locked onto Maddie's son, and its mouth parted again in a vicious, blood-thirsty smirk, and as it's aura began to glow a brighter white, one of its hands raised to point in her direction, and a boiling red energy could be seen pouring from its core, flowing like an angry river underneath translucent skin to gather in its waiting hand in a ball of energy.

"Fajna tiam, homaj, kiel prezo por via transpasxo, via dorlotbesto, mortos en viaj anstataux!" The creature roared, and released the energy, aimed straight at the infant in the young mother's arms.

With a scream, Madeline turned and ran, hoping to shield her child from the blast with her own body, but to her horror, the energy passed straight through her exposed back and into Daniel, sending shards of ice throughout her body and her heart to stop in her chest as Daniel lit with a harsh red glow and his cries became ragged and choked, his small face draining of all color as he struggled to breathe in her arms.

Maddie stumbled and fell to her knees as she clutched her son to her chest, staring at his pale form in horrified numbness, barely able to see his dark blue eyes moving, or the movement of his chest as he struggled to draw in life-giving breath, still glowing with the ghost's red energy.

And then she saw the rifle.

Gently as possible, Daniel was placed on the floor before her, as her hands reached, mechanically, for the anti-ghost weapon; the second her fingers made contact with the metal, a fire seemed to explode through her senses, setting them ablaze with the instinctual need to defend her offspring.

With a shriek of rage and despair on her lips, Maddie whirl around to face the threat to her child, and pulled the trigger.

With a shriek of rage on its lips, the specter was ripped through by the special anti-ghost bullet, straight through its core, and red ectoplasm splattering grotesquely against the wall behind it as it writhed in the air, before fading into nothingness.

For a second, there was absolute silence, then the rifle fell with a loud clatter to the ground, and Maddie went with it as she turned, desperate , to face her child.

Daniel lay on the ground, wrapped up in his tiny purple blanket, his blue eyes closed peacefully, no longer surrounded by the foul, life-sucking energy of the evil specter.

Because there was no longer a life-force to drain.

Maddie could only stare, uncomprehending, at the form of her son, looking so small, where he lay on the floor, not breathing, and then the entire world became darker, as the blackness of despair washed through Maddie's mind, and with tears pouring down hair face in great gasping sobs, Maddie fell forward, arms outstretched to her dead son.

The entire world faded away into shadow, as Maddie lay there, cradling Daniel in her arms for an infinite amount of time as shards of ice dug themselves deeper and deeper into Maddie's heart, guilt and self-hatred washing through her in waves of black madness.

And then she saw the light.

It was faint at first, just a light, white glow around Daniel's body, barely registering in her mind.

And then it got brighter.

And brighter.

And brighter _still_, until she could hardly stand to keep her eyes open for the glare.

With a final flash, like that of a star exploding into a supernova, the blazing white light became a bright purple, before it faded, and Daniel's body had acquired an oddly blurry look to it, as if there was a heat haze around him.

And then she saw the tiny green oval blaze to life right over his heart.

With a gasp, Maddie could only stare in astonishment as the haziness coalesced into a smoky black form with a vaguely humanoid shape but for the long, ethereal tail that trailed from Daniel's lifeless body, as if it were anchoring the vaporous form to this world.

A small, hopeful lit up her face, as she reached out a shaking hand to the familiar untidy mess of_ white_ hair on the phantom's head.

The second her hand made contact, the form became corporeal, but she barely had time to glimpse softly glowing red eyes and blue skin before the spirit of Daniel James Masters was pushed by an otherworldly breeze into the ghost portal.

Jumping to her feet, Madeline Masters raced to the window into the World of the Dead, just in time to see a spirit in a purple cloak receiving her son's soul with open arms, one of which wielded a long, winged staff, shaped like a clock.

The Spirit turned its head to face her, and bright, intelligent red eyes flashed in her direction, and she had the oddest feeling wash through her, as if she were looking into the eyes of Cronos himself, The Titan Lord of Time.

_"You will see your son again."_ The Spirit of Time said, it's deep voice echoing across the void in a reasurring wave to where Maddie stood, _"In seven days, you must come to me. I will protect the child-you need not fear, for he is one of Us..."_

******  
Translations:  
1) You, human, you are a Hunter, yes?  
2) Foolish creature, not even able to speak the Tongue! You are unworthy of entering out world, yet you deign to invade my home!?  
3) Fine then, human, as price for your transgression, your pet shall die in your stead!**


End file.
